The Commanders defense is going to be focused on Eagles running back Saquon Barkley this Sunday, but the offense is going to have their eyes on a different member of the NFC East champs.
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter has been a disruptive force for the Eagles all year and he’s been even more noticeable in the playoffs. Carter has seven tackles, two sacks, three quarterback hits, two passes defensed and a forced fumble in Philadelphia’s two wins.
Carter’s provided plenty of other pressure to opposing quarterbacks and the constant threat he provides up front has Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury on guard for what he can do.
“He’s one of the most dominant players in the league, if not the most dominant that I’ve seen,” Kingsbury said in a Thursday press conference. “He can wreck a game by himself. They’re good enough up front to rush four and get pressure as they’ve shown throughout the year, but that guy’s really come on. I have a ton of respect for how he plays the game. Whether they’re up, down, whatever. He’s playing hard, he’s getting his wins. He’s changed that entire defense with his style of play.”
The Commanders were able to outlast Carter, Barkley and the rest of the Eagles for a 36-33 win in late December. Getting another one on Sunday will be a lot easier if they can limit the impact of both stars on both sides of the field.
The Commanders played the Eagles twice during the regular season, so they know what their opponent in the NFC Championship Game wants to do on offense.
Saquon Barkley has run for 2,329 yards in his 18 appearances for the Eagles this season and 296 of them came against the Commanders. Barkley ran for more than five yards a carry in those games and scored four touchdowns, which makes keeping him from ruining their day a top priority of the defense.
That’s been the priority for the Packers and the Rams the last two weeks as well and doing it is a very different story. On Thursday, Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner explained what he thinks the team needs to do in order to keep Barkley from going off.
“You just try to contain him,” Wagner said, via audio from the team. “This is gonna be a game of discipline. The last game [against the Rams], they did a pretty decent job for the most part but he’s waiting for that one person to pop out of the gap. He’s waiting for that one person to be undisciplined. . . . That’s going to be our challenge — to be disciplined the whole time, the whole game. He has the ability and the talent to break a run at any given point, and we need to make sure that don’t happen.”
Beating the Eagles will take sharp performances across the board from the Commanders, but holding Barkley in check looms larger than most of the other items on the list.
The Commanders remained without two key defensive players at practice on Thursday.
Defensive tackle Daron Payne (knee, finger) and linebacker Bobby Wagner (ankle) missed practice for the second straight day. Wagner missed two practices last week before playing against Detroit and Payne was limited in practice during the week.
Quarterback Jeff Driskel (illness) was added to the report after missing practice. Guard Sam Cosmi was also out and he will miss Sunday’s game after tearing his ACL against the Lions.
Defensive end Clelin Ferrell (knee) and tight end Zach Ertz (rib) returned to practice. Ferrell was limited and Ertz was a full participant.
Tight end John Bates (shoulder), defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste (shoulder), wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus (hip), wide receiver Jamison Crowder (rest), linebacker Frankie Luvu (shoulder), and tight end Ben Sinnott (shoulder) were limited participants.
The Bills were down to one player out of practice on Thursday.
Left tackle Dion Dawkins was a full participant in practice after missing Wednesday’s session with an illness. That should mean Dawkins is in his customary spot on Josh Allen’s blind side when the Bills hit the field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Safety Taylor Rapp remained out of practice with back and hip injuries. The Bills will practice again on Friday before issuing injury designations and Rapp’s lack of participation so far this week suggests the team will need to make other plans in the secondary.
Cornerback Christian Benford (concussion) and linebacker Matt Milano (hamstring) were limited for the second straight day. Cornerback Taron Johnson (neck, shoulder) was limited after being listed as full on Wednesday.
One of the talking points after last Saturday’s Chiefs win over the Texans was tight end Travis Kelce’s vintage performance.
Kelce had seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown in the 23-14 win, so there was plenty of reason to talk about how much he did to help the team advance. The win also obscured how little the Chiefs had to do during the game.
Xavier Worthy had five catches, but no other Chiefs wide receivers caught a pass against Houston. Hollywood Brown was targeted twice and he said on Wednesday that he remains confident that he’ll get his chance to make an impact in the postseason.
“You always want to catch passes. But I felt like I had a really good game, ran really good routes,” Brown said, via Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star. “So the ball will come. But I was glad I was able to just play and put some good stuff on film.”
The Chiefs have proven their ability to adapt their offense to fit what’s needed from game to game, which means there’s good reason for Brown, DeAndre Hopkins or any other wideout in Kansas City to believe that their time will come before all is said and done.
Jayden Daniels’s play for the Commanders this season has generated a lot of conversation about whether he’s had the best rookie season of any quarterback in league history and Sunday’s game could make it all but impossible to argue against him.
If the Commanders can beat the Eagles, Daniels would become the first rookie quarterback to take his team to the Super Bowl. That achievement would be hard to overcome in terms of feathers in a rookie’s cap, but Daniels said on Wednesday that he isn’t drawing motivation from the chance to become a trail blazer in that regard.
“I’m not even thinking that far. It would obviously be a blessing, but I’m just focused on how can I be better day by day,” Daniels said.
That focus has served Daniels well since he entered the NFL and a win this week would lead to a lot of thoughts about just how good Daniels might end up being and how fast he might wind up reaching those heights.
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown has not been shy about airing negative feelings about the team’s offense and his role in it over the course of his time with the Eagles, but there’s no complaints coming from him at the moment.
That might come as a surprise to some given how little Brown has had to do in the passing game the last two weeks. Brown has three catches for 24 yards in the team’s first two playoff outings, but he made it clear on Wednesday that his personal results are less important than what’s on the scoreboard.
“I can’t worry about what happened in the past or even these past two games,” Brown said in a press conference. “I can only look at the film and learn from it. It’s just kinda how the game’s been going. I’m OK, we won. I had some incredible blocks to spring touchdowns, so regardless of if the numbers are not there — I know people care about that — but right now, none of that matters. It’s all about getting that win at the end of the day, so it don’t matter.”
Whether it’s a case of his sideline reading material or the experience of making playoff runs in the past that’s giving him perspective, Brown’s attitude is a positive one for the Eagles as they push to make it to their second Super Bowl in three seasons.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts isn’t showing any doubt about his availability for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Commanders.
Hurts injured his left knee during last Sunday’s win over the Rams, but never came out of the game and he was able to take part in a walkthrough practice on Wednesday. Hurts said at a press conference later in the day that he’s on track to play this weekend.
“It’s just been progressing,” Hurts said. “Taking it a day at a time. I was able to participate today and be involved in stuff, so just taking it a day at a time.”
Hurts was asked if he thought he’d be able to play without any limitations and said only that he hopes to continue making progress over the rest of the week. The Eagles will practice twice more before they host the Commanders.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes drew two questionable 15-yard penalties during Saturday’s win over the Texans, but his attempt to draw a third by slowing down near the sideline and then falling to the ground as soon as he was touched was not successful.
Mahomes acknowledged in an interview with Carrington Harrison of 96.5 The Fan that the officials were correct not to throw a flag on that play, and he shouldn’t have attempted to draw a penalty in that way.
“I would say the only one I felt like I probably did too much was the one on the sideline where I didn’t get the flag,” Mahomes said. “The refs saw it and it didn’t get a flag. I understood it immediately and know that I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
Still, Mahomes says complaints about the officiating are overblown.
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens during the game, something is going to come out about it if you win, if you continue to win,” Mahomes said. “I don’t really pay attention to it. Obviously, I’ve been on both sides of it as far as how I’ve felt that calls were made. But at the end of the day, those guys are doing their best to make the best calls and keep it to where the players are making the plays in the game and that’s what decides the outcome. Obviously, there was a call here and there that people didn’t agree with, but at the same time I think there were a lot of other plays that decided the outcome of that football game.”
There’s a perception among many NFL fans that Mahomes and the Chiefs get favorable treatment from the officials, and that will make the officiating closely scrutinized when the Chiefs meet the Bills on Sunday, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
The Eagles are holding their first practice of the week on Wednesday and two players who picked up injuries in the divisional round are set to be part of it.
Head coach Nick Sirianni said at a Wednesday press conference that quarterback Jalen Hurts and cornerback Quinyon Mitchell will be on the field. Hurts hurt his left knee in the win over the Rams, but did not miss any snaps. Mitchell left the game with a shoulder injury.
The session will be a walkthrough rather than a full session, but the fact that both players will be taking part is a positive sign for their chances of playing against the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game.
Thursday and Friday will bring further chances for both players to get on the practice field and their continued presence should point to them being good to go for Sunday.
